In readiness for Christmas…

In readiness for Christmas, I’m testing out a new cocktail called Ginger Storm.  It’s a whisky cocktail and will make a change from the usual Black Russian.

As you can all see, the drinks cabinet is full.  This year is the first time that this has ever happened.  When I was a kid there was never a full drinks cabinet and since I’ve been married there has never been a full drinks cabinet.  Not until this year, anyway.  Go back about eight years ago and Christmas saw a cabinet with just a few fizzy drinks in it.  This year Gloria and I have been blessed with some money to spend on ourselves and I am thankful to God for that.

You may notice a few things in my cabinet.  On the shelf above the drinks there are five photos.  The two at either end feature Gloria’s father who passed away from a heart attack when she was ten years old.  To Jesus’s right is a photo of my father’s grave and to the left of Jesus is Gloria and Yasmin when Yasmin was only four years of age – nineteen years ago!

Gloria’s parents were both from Saint Helena while my mother is Jamaican.  Because of this differing heritage, you can notice that Gloria and I have different textures of brown skin when we stand next to each other.

Yasmin, meanwhile, has that enviable skin that tans nicely in the summer thanks to the brown blood on her mother’s side.  In spite of this, she still resorts to using fake tan from time to time.  A total waste of money in her case.

To the right of the picture (for those using tablets or mobiles, you may have to open the photo in a new window to see this), hanging on the door handle are two tabards that Gloria wears to her work in a local infant school; the same school that both she and Yasmin went to.  Gloria really enjoys her work there and it’s the most relaxed that she’s been in years.  She gets on amazingly well with her bosses and we’ve been to a few of their private parties.

Generally, we have been blessed when you look at where we have been in years past.  But, there’s always someone that you wish that you were sharing the good things with.  I know who I’m missing, who are you all missing this year?

Late night at work – and still no mini cocktail bar

Yesterday for me was a really annoying day at work.

Man, I need to go home

I won’t bore everyone with the details so I’ll just throw out one phrase that I don’t want to see again when I’m the only one left working in the office late at night – “You can only specify the READPAST lock in the READ COMMITTED or REPEATABLE READ isolation levels”

In case any SQL experts are passing…no, I don’t need any help with this now.

Where the heck were you last night when I did need you?

It was several months ago that I told the Operations Director and the Customer Services Manager that I would work better if there was a mini cocktail bar behind my desk.

There’s enough space between my chair and the window for one.  I suppose that the reason that my request has never been fulfilled is that they’re worried that I’d never go home; but I definitely would.

A mini bar like this one will help me at work

If I stayed in the office I might end up doing a lot more work than I’m paid to do.

The cleaners were vacuuming around me at 8 o’clock and I was nowhere near finished.  ‘Oh well, I’m locking the building and setting the alarm again,’ I thought (like most evenings).

One of the cleaners said to me that I must really love my job.  “I wouldn’t be working at this time.”

“You’re here!” I pointed out to him.

I was prepared for yesterday being a late one, but Señora SQL Replication (actually, she probably isn’t Spanish) added an hour or two onto my anticipated workday.  I’d cooked my tea the night before of lamb chops, boiled new potatoes and peas and came home to add a couple of slices of bread and two fried eggs.  And when I did get to finally eat it, I had started to feel quite hungry and the plate failed to satisfy.  I ended up eating too many biscuits with my evening RedBush tea.

Oh well, I managed to leave early today after speaking to the Senior Project Manager.  I wonder who’s locking up the office tonight?  Actually, I’m not really that bothered.